So you have just finished watching Jamie Gold win the WSOP NL Hold Em Main Event and take home a $12,000,000 first place check. You have decided poker is the new thing for you. You jump on the net and google “online poker rooms,” you find a site, download their software, search out a credit card your partner doesn’t have maxed out and make your first deposit. You are now set to go, right? WRONG!

You have already made mistake number one by downloading and depositing at a room you have no idea is right for you. The best way to find an ideal poker room is by leaving this decision until last. First, there are many factors that need to be taken into account in order to give you the best chance at being profitable which we will now analyze.

First, you need to know what variant of poker is best suited to you! Some of the most popular games include Texas Hold Em, Omaha, 7 Card Stud, 5 Card Stud, 5 Card Draw and Razz. Some of these games also have twists on themselves like hi/lo formats which need to be considered! Different people will play different variants better than others and other variants worse. It is up to you to find which of the variants best suits your play and also entertains you. It is important you find a game that you won’t tire of in 30 minutes.

Once you have selected your game your next step is to decide upon your preferred betting structure. No Limit is possibly the most enticing as it involves the greater risk and allows you to bet at your pleasure. Pot Limit has a maximum bet depending on the chips bet and can make those bad calls less painful while still offering juicy pot sizes! Fixed Limit is the safest way to bet as you know every hand the maximum amount you have to put into any pot!

Now we have our game and our bet type selected we move on to blind levels. Most sites will offer you tables with blinds as low as 1 and 2 cents and max out in the hundreds somewhere. The most important factor when selecting your blind level is to play an amount your comfortable with and an amount your balance can handle. If you have a fear of losing then I would say your playing too high a level!

With blinds out the way we move onto table sizes. Some games will come with a standard table size only, others will give you the option of full-ring, usually 9-10 player tables or half-ring, 5-6 player tables. Full-ring tables are best suited to the more patient players that will wait out for premium hands. Half-ring allows the less patient players to see more hands as it moves a lot quicker and with less players it’s less likely you will need an absolute monster to take down a pot.

We have now decided exactly what we are going to play and are able to move onto site selection. In this instance let’s say our player has chosen he wants to play 5 card Draw at Pot Limit on 10 and 20 cent blind levels which has a fixed table size. We need a site that has 5 card Draw in it’s software. Once we have that we need to know what time of day we are most likely to be playing. Chose a site where there are plenty of players online at our selected timeslot. We now need to know that of the 4,000 players online, enough of them are playing 5 card Draw at PL and on our blind level that we will get a game. Finally we are ready to download the site, make our deposit and begin our online experience! Happy Pokering!

Ali-G is a walking book of knowledge when it comes to poker sites, forums, and freerolls. He knows the ins and outs of what is occuring in the world of online poker, and is happy to share his secrets.